I always see Monticello on fishing reports but have any of you ever fished for them? I've bass fished that lake for 30+yrs and have never seen a crappie, caught one or seen anyone fish for them. Just. Curious

I used to hear about folks catching them way back before they stopped us from skiing & swimming on the lake.I wouldn't eat anything out of a hot water lake tho, there's a reason they stopped us from swimming there

Here is what I can share for what it's worth as an answer to your question. Crappie are in the lake and crappie anglers pursued the species after the opening of Monticello and several years to follow.

Monticello was the Lake Fork before Lake Fork existed. It was the a real potential trophy production factory for largemouth bass in the late 70's - early 80's. In this time period, more than (1) crappie angler reeled in a real trophy sized largemouth on ultralight spinning gear, typically with a marabou crappie jig or plastic lure attached on the other end.

In the time period referenced many stories dotted the pages of a magazine called Big Bass of the Month. Every month sizable dollars were handed over to anglers for their catch. In more than one case, those anglers were crappie anglers who reeled in crappie to fill their livewells or basket as well as a largemouth bass of proportions and weight to end up on the top of the winners list for the month.

You can catch huge crappie under the bridge, but like all other fish out of Monticello, their meat smells like mud. This is because of the algae in the lake that the bait fish feed in smells like decomposing moss. Bait fish feed in it, predators eat the bait fish and thus they all have that horrible smell and taste in their meat. The water has been cold for over a year now, so eadibility may have increased. But to truly answer y I ur question, yes it is full of crappie, I just don't recommend eating them.